Rick's Hold

The party left the safety of Rosco’s place and departed into the depths of the caverns of the Underdark once more, following the trail of the the Drow raiding party. Soon after heading into the tunnels, they encountered a Drow patrol.

A long, frustrating battle ensued, where the party defended themselves against a Drow band comprised of Warriors and Wizards and led by a deadly humanoid-hunting Ranger.
Though many wounds were incurred, the group defeated the bad guys and won the day. They spent a brief moment bandaging their wounds before continuing on.

Drow, lizards, _spike growth_, Druid. House Aleval, House Zaniqos.

Around the next bend in the tunnels lurked even more drow. Hiding at the distant end of a cavern, with giant lizards were a second patrol of drow bad guys. Luckily spotted but unfortunately too slow to act, the cleric was unable to detect the bad guys in time to prevent a slight ambush.
When one of the lizards cast a spell, the group realized they were up against a druid or polymorphed wizard. Who could walk along the ceiling. Fun. Anyways, the caster placed a large section of floor under a spike stone spell, preventing the party from engaging their foes effectively. Despite this, Morgwais charged ‘heroically’ through the spikes. Upon reaching the other side, he engaged the group of drow on the floor, who immediately slew him. The paladin had air-walk cast upon him and he chased down the lizard-caster. The wizard as usual blew a fireball up the drows ass, accidentally singing Morgwais in the process. The airborne paladin caught up to the druid and slew him in one swing. The wizard cast a rainbow pattern, capturing all but one drow.
Nuati and Gil finished that drow off while the rogue, Rosco and the cleric feebly flailed away at the lone giant lizard, tat was actually a lizard, not a caster. With the rest of the enemies defeated, the wizard had the fascinated drow to walk past Rosco, who slit their throats as they passed.
Searching the caverns, the group discovered an alchemy lab in which was a journal, which Roscoe was able to read. In it was confirmed the origin of the poison used in the drow raid was a ore found nderground. The cleric was able to relate his personal knowledge, relating that the ore was considered cursed and poisonous to the dwarves and was to be avoided. Just being near the ore caused sickness, increasing in severity as length of exposure increased. Despite this knowledge, the party was unable to discern a cure.
Needing a cure to solve and complete their mission, the group plans on traveling to a nearby drow city, one Erelhei-Cin Lu to act sas merchants to purchase a cure. Rosco knows the way to the city and will once again act as guide. He also has a contact in the city, a family called Alleval, who are enemies of the raiding drow family, one Varracos family.
The paladins are unhappy with this plan but have not provided a better alternative so that’s the plan.

Drow Drow Drow, POW!

Cloakers

The group wandered further into the depths of the underdark, following their Drow guide, Nathfein. Discovering some frightening puddles, the Rogue became convinced that they must contain vast riches, if only some brave adventurer would risk their depths. This was untrue. After becoming enspelled to be able to breathe the water using Gill’s Amulet, the Rogue spent time strolling the bottom of the scary puddles, where he discovered: Nothing.

After this, they entered a large, empty-looking cavern, with a side tunnel with violet fungus in it. Wanting to investigate despite the wise counsel of the Bard, the Wizard moved forwards. After walking through part-way, the Wizard noticed a small band of Skum. Hoping to quickly dispatch them, he fired off a fireball, roasting one and toasting the other five.

As the group geared up to fight the smoking Skum, another threat loomed into sight: A Cloaker. It swept over the violet fungus, who moved to attack the Rogue and Wizard and also caused a few Shriekers to squeal. As the Cloaker joined the fight, it emitted some moans, disrupting the combat for the party. The violet fungus had a surprisingly long reach, whipping and poisoning the Wizard into quick unconsciousness, while the first of three Cloakers swooped in and engulfed the Rogue before anybody could say a peep about it. As the Cloaker flew off with his soon-to-be Halfling Snack, the Cleric rushed to his downed brother, beat off the monsters attacking him and healed him back to fighting form, or at least a form capable of casting spells — Fireball to be specific — right at the escaping Cloaker holding the Rogue.

THe Cloaker failed its save and roasted. The Rogue was free. He also failed his save and also roasted, which knocked him unconscious, which made him unable to arrest his fall from the now dead and burnt Cloaker, so he bumped a bit on his way down and was pissed off again when two rounds later the Paladin and Cleric reached his side and rained healing down upon him.

During this commotion, Nathfein attempted to escape. He left the sight of the group, but when the party went to find him, he had been fight a random lonely Halfling of the underdark — a Deep Halfling, or Deepling, if you will. He offered to allow the party the use of his cave to rest in.

The rogue, of course, went invisible and tried to raid their new ally’s cave of valuables but was eventually stopped and subdued.

At the end of the session, Gil tied up the Rogue with a Use Rope roll of 17.

The weirdness that folks do when the Bard is away

The Wizard, Cleric, Paladin, and Rogue went into the Underdark with three of the Paladin’s warriors and one of the Halfling’s guys.

The Wizard and Rogue climbed a cliff in the Underdark (why the Wizard you ask? no Friggen clue). And they were ambushed by Darkmantles up top. Defeated them quick enough and then everyone climbed up using the Wizard’s slippers of spider climb (they would climb up and toss them down to the next guy). Then for some inexplicable reason the Cleric was last and decided he would just climb because he couldn’t fall and take damage because he had the ring of feather fall. So he tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and kept getting halfway up and falling back down. Eventually a monster appeared and attacked the Cleric at the bottom when they were separated.

It was a Destrachan, a sonic attacking lobster with a whole whack of HP. The monster used its non lethal attack as it dealt 6D6 non lethal damage to practically everyone since it’s an area of effect. Knocked out all the minor character easily and was whittling down the main guys when the Paladin decided “enough is enough” and jumped down the 30 foot cliff and charged at the monster. Took a round or two but after that the outcome was never in doubt.

Then shit got real. They explored around the cave system a bit and got ambushed again by Darkmantles, this time a dozen of them. Almost wiped them out. Killed the halfling’s follower and all but one of the Paladin’s warriors he brought along. After that they decided to return home.

During the last fight the Drow who was leading them through the Underdark used his faerie fire abilities to help them spot the Darkmantles in the darkness spells they kept using, so the Paladin for some reason decided they should arm the Drow so he could help in the future. The Wizard of course flipped out and kept taking the sword away from the Drow, and the situation turned into the Paladin giving the Drow a sword then the Dwarf taking it back and then the Paladin demanding his sword back and then giving it back to the Drow again once the Dwarf handed it back.

Down de hole

Nuati intimidated, charm-ed, and Diplomatised the captured Drow, convincing him (Nath-Fein) to lead us into the Underdark to capture our target, Ist-Tsa the monitor lizard-riding Drow.

The party made their way down the hole, then travelled through the Underdark for three hours before encountering eight Derro. They suck. Darkness and sound bursts. Eventually they were defeated and their loot was gathered: 50,000 friggin’ copper pieces. Also, our Halfling Rogue was being held captive. The party rescued him and gave him back his bone dagger.

On the way back to the surface, the party encountered one Skum. Nuati cast Tasha’s hideous laughter but the Skum saved and ran off. The party avoided the route that the Skum took, and made their way back to the surface.

The party finished their few days of paperwork and merchantry. Some new equipment was gathered and the Rogue used his new contact to sell Baron Percy’s Amulet that he and the Wizard had stolen a while back as well as get some new items for his thievery and magery. After selling most of the valuables and splitting the loot, the party readied to head off once more.

Before the group was actually ready to depart, they were called by a spell from their allies back home. Apparently shit has hit the fan back in Rick’s Hold. Something about Drow? (Seriously, the Basic Six are gone for a few days and everything falls apart. Again. Sheesh. Normally WE knock the fan shit up!)

So the party needs to return to their keep swiftly, and have been given help from the temple of Pelor to enlist the aid of huge giant eagles to fly the group home.

But nothing is ever free, except free stuff. So the group had to remove some vermin for the eagles who had been hiding in a hole in their eerie and been stealing their eggs.

Vermin turned out to be Gargoyles who, despite their best efforts, were decimated easily and quickly by the group, who were in no mood for further delays. Once victorious, the Six returned the stolen egg to the eagles and got a ride back to Rick’s Hold, a journey that only took two days as the giant eagle flies. Also the Wizard’s Dwarves left, despite having never even seen combat yet, while the Cleric has attracted the attention of three more Dwarven Warriors who he suited up and paid the eagles to fly back to Rick’s Hold as well with the party.

The eagles landed outside of the walls of Rick’s Hold, trying to avoid being attacked by the Humans who live in the area. They will wait in the woods until the party is ready to return to the coast and the Sea Wyvern.

The Basic Six did some paperwork, bought and sold stuff, and tried to sell two Dwarves into the sex trade. Gil managed to acquire a magical amulet of health. Nuati bought a ton of metal ingots. Halfling the Thief met a new friend. Dimitri learned about jousting. And the Dwarves lived happily never after, amen!

Still in the battle-torn and corpse strewn Vandertunt estate, the party moved through a few large rooms, searching for poor individuals in need of rescue from this carnage. Before long, the group ran into another blog of Bullywogs. These were accompanied by a moderately potent Bullywog Cleric, who ceaselessly burbled to his(her?) god and a Half-Orc Fighter.
Dimitri led the way, tearing into the Bullywogs, while their leader hid out of sight for a while. The Bullywogs didn’t put up much of a fight, and so some of the party swept into the room, even while it was still full of beasties. This allowed the Half-Orc to carve into the party at his whim, doing some notable damage to both Dimitri and the Cleric, who was surprised and not pleasantly so, by the strength of his enemy. Throughout tuhis, the Cleric did little but annoy people, and the group targeted him(her?) mercilessly. So the Bullywog Cleric was first to bite the dust, followed by most of the Bullywog Warriors. It took some more time, but before the battle became fatal for any of the Six, the party was able to subdue the Half-Orc into a surrender. And so Dimitri gleefully clapped manacles on his newest prisoner. The captive provided them with some info, mainly that there were more Bullywogs about (obviously), for sure some in the basement and they had a Rust Monster.

Mention of a Rust Monster turned the supposedly fearless Paladins into squeamish puddles of valiantly gutless scaredy-cats. So the Wizard, Bard, Cleric, and their newest allies who they had saved from the last blog of ’Wogs, led the group into the basement. They had shed all their metal equiment and were ready to fight a Rust Monster.

Nuati charmed the monster, but drew the attention of all the Bullywogs in the blog in the basement. They of course attacked the Bard on sight. The Rust Monster, despite being charmed, continued to mindlessly attempt to eat the forks and spoons stabbed into a prisoner while she hung suspended. The Bullywogs swarmed over and around the Bard, who became surrounded and called for help. Not the call to summon the metal-clad warriors hiding up the stairs, but to call the Wizard to send down a fireball., which the Wizard happily provided, singeing a few ’Wogs and crisping the rest.

While the rest of the not-well armoured group battled the Bullywogs who hadn’t burned up initially, Nuati skipped past the combatants and engaged the Rust Monster, not in a fight, but in a hug. Upon doing so, he realized that the monster had a leash, so he grabbed that instead. Once the Rust Monster was held, the Paladins were called down and they assisted in finishing off the blog and their much more powerful leader.

Despite his strength and accuracy, the grand Bullywog was unable to mortally wound any of the party before he was defeated, thankfully, though some dogs got killed pretty badly. Following the battle, the group freed the rest of the Jade Ravens and looted the bodies of the bad guys they had killed. They then spent a day resting up in town, Nuati identified some items and the group split some of the cool magical loot.

Gil got a belt of becoming really strong, which made Dimitri jealous. How Paladinly. And charitable. The Wizard got some slippers of wall-climbing — also neat. They began unloading their loot from the Sea Wyvern and sold most of the most mundane stuff they didn’t want— basic weapons, armor, and random junk they had acquired. But there remains more to be sold and a day of bureaucracy looms over the horizon once again!

The party arrived at the Vandertunt estate, but not before being attacked by acrobat-dancer fighter guys on stilts who didn’t put up too much of a fight and bumping into a drunken Dwarf who was rescued from further trouble by his companion, a Half-orc. Upon arriving at the estate they saw there was a battle they had missed, so the Basic Six continued into the building proper.

Inside, the chandelier was dropped onto the party and they were set upon by a blog of Bullywogs. Despite the aid of a falling light fixture, the Bullywogs would blog no more.

Also, the Rogue left the party in the streets before arriving at the estate. Nobody else knows why and he didn’t say anything to anyone except the Bard (the BARD knows!), so they will see him at a later date it appears.

The party, now in Treinz, scoured the town for information regarding Vanthus’ location. This wasn’t difficult news to find. Vanthus was heading for a place called Kraken’s Cove. Luckily, the Wizard had heard of this cove and knew its location. Knowing that it was difficult to arrive at by land due to mountainous terrain and such geographical hardships, the Basic Six decided to travel via sea.

Needing transport, they opted, to the Wizard’s disappointment, to take their plight and plan to the local Naval forces. Also to the Wizard’s disappointment the Navy lent the party the use of one of their smallest ships to arrive near, but not quite at, their destination. Using the borrowed ship and crew, the party attained their goal in short order, only running afoul of a small group of deformed creatures, like monkeys, after being dropped to shore by the navy a short time before. Though these the group summarily defeated, the reasoning behind the attack seemed off, as the deformed creatures had attacked as if crazed. And when each died, its corpse exploded, raining acid down on its slayer and leaving a small pool of acid where the beast’s body had fallen. Shortly after pooling into acid, the acid too would disappear, evaporating into nothing. Not knowing what to make of these beasts (soup being out of the picture), the party continued their last leg of the journey on foot.

Upon arriving, after hours and/or weeks of travel, the Six arrive but a few short hours too late. The cove was a wreck, with burned out and burning ship hulks floating about near the quays like enormous flaming bundles of wood and surrounded by wreckage and bodies. The group came to a steep cliff, and while some used their own unique ways to descend, the Bard and the Paladin Gil attempted to use a walkway. Once Nuati stepped on the walkway, it collapsed because he was too fat (Morgwais and Gil already being halfway across didn’t help), and all three fell into the sea a few yards from shore. The Wizard had cast fly upon his brother the Cleric who then carried him and the Rogue to shore safely. Also the Paladin rode his rhino off the cliff, straight into the water. Having consumed a potion of swimming, the rhino powered through the surf like a motor-boat.

But not to safety, as among the many corpses and piles of wreckage, two disturbing and deformed individuals, reminiscent of pirates, ambushed the party as Morgwais inspected their hiding places, drawn to their scent. The creatures, though dangerous, were defeated by the group. Upon their death, these monsters too blew up and puddled into acid.

Once the enemies were cleared, the Bard questioned a corpse of a dead sailor using his harp-of-dead-sailor-talking-to. The sailor revealed the details regarding the events that had so recently transpired. Having searched the beach, the group noted a ship seemingly unharmed in the events, drifting off The coast nearby. it was a well-built three-masted caravel. Grabbing his brother and the thieving Rogue, the Cleric flew out to the ship to discover it devoid of life, but in excellent condition. It bore the name Sea Wyvern, and the group claimed it for themselves before deciding to explore the caves beyond the beach like a bunch of discontented murderhoboes.

The party continued to travel along the road to Capital, and then eventually Treinz, the supposed location of Vanthus Vandertunt. The rest of the trip was uneventful and the party rested in several inns not really worth mentioning. There was one stop that housed a spectacular garden, including plants that would not grow in the mountainous terrain in normal circumstances.

Upon reaching Capital, the Basic six did some more shopping, though this was limited as their funds were universally depleted. Gil gave away some of his gear to allow him to carry new magical things. Also he felt he owed a debt to the Cleric for the trading of lesser armour for greater.

After Nuati had finished his buying and selling of trade goods, the group departed the next morning for their next stop: Treinz! Upon finally reaching the city, Nuati needed to sell his last goods. Some of his goods were in high demand, but the lord of Treinz is literally a figurative thief as he demands a 20% duty on all trade goods. The loss in duty fees was worth attempting to smuggle in the goods without the city officials taking note. So Nuati got the assistance of the Wizard, who shrank most of his trade goods to avoid the tax. Hooray for teamwork! (The Wizard was surprisingly helpful in this endeavour). Once shopping was again completed, the group rendezvoused at the manor of Lavigna [who da fuh? Ohhh, Lavinia!], deciding to rest there before searching for and confronting Vanthus, who, rumour has it, has gone off to defeat some pirates who have a thing he must want. The group wants to recover Vanthus’ stolen monies, defeat him and his allies and also the pirates and get their loot as well as whatever it is that Vanthus wants, as it must obviously be valuable, whatever it is. Because that’s what the Basic Six has always basically been: Two Paladins and a bunch of looters.

Still in Riverton, the party continued to do small things like shop and such. Nuati swept through the market, looking once more for valuables to buy, sell, or trade. He passed up a large quantity of owlbear parts however, not wanting to risk his money on something he was unfamiliar with.

The Cleric and Gil went together to buy an expensive set of &plus;2 full plate. Riverton had no Masterwork or &plus;1 full plate, only very expensive &plus;2. So spending all his money, Gorin bought, with the help of Gil, the armor and gave it to his Paladin friend. In return, the Paladin handed the Dwarf his own &plus;1 full plate. This all added up to mean that both the Cleric and Paladin gained in armor protection.

Finally, the fifth day in Riverton arrived and Dimitri’s sword was finished. He gathered his new toy and the group departed, heading for the Capital. The road was well laid out and guarded, with several inns and rest stops along the way. This was for the best, as a storm hit on the second day out of Riverton.

Having elected (and paid!) to travel in a 40&plus; wagon caravan, the group voted with the majority and the caravan continued through the bad weather. Of course, in the midst of the blowing snow and cold, the caravan was attacked all along its line by a pack of Winter Wolves. They attacked in concert from one side of the road, attempting to panic the group and drive individuals and horses away from the road and their allies. This worked on the Halfling, whose pony panicked and ran blindly from the blindly caravan blindly into a waiting Frost Giant, blindly. Who had been waiting for this exact situation? The Frost Giants, that’s who. (English, mudda fugga! Learn da bitch!)

The party struggled, but managed to removed the threat of nearby Winter Wolves. Dimitri charged around at anything he could see while the Wizard lobbed globs of fire at the monsters. With the Wolves downed, the group focused its attention on the Giant, who had squashed poor, poor Eddy the Pony. Dimitri led the charge against the blue-skinned evil Gargantua, which was a rough fight as the big bastard clubbed the Paladin multiple times with his, um…was it an axe?…before the Basic Six put the Giant down.

While his friends fought their nearby foes, Gil and Morgwais rode up the column, aiming to defend other caravan merchants and wagons who might not be so prepared as his companions.

After defeating the band of monsters, the group looted their defeated Giant and the party found a skilled outdoorsman to assist them in skinning the Winter Wolves, gathering their pelts. The remainder of the evening was spent repairing and reorganising the caravan following the chaos of battle.

Having defeated their not-quite-so-inanimate foes, the party decided to spend some time preparing for the next leg of their journey. Despite wanting to move quickly, the party wanted Nuati to catch up, Dimitri wished to have his silver sword enhanced, the Wizard and Cleric created some scrolls and potions. The Wizard only went one day, as he didn’t want to pay 50 gp a day in addition to his own costs. The Cleric on the other hand, visited the local temple of Moradin, where most of the Dwarven pantheon was venerated. He was very well received here, as the temple sees few Clerics of Dumathoin. Not used to being the center of attention, especially positive attention from those with real interest in his speciality, Gorin visited the Temple to discuss and work on his magic scroll etc. every day the group stayed in Riverton. Nuati showed up a day or two later, and continued his shopping.

Having reached another month’s end, the party needed to pay their various upkeeps. Some party members had been prepared and set up payments for their followers back home. Others were not so forward thinking and had to have thier payments covered temporarily by the keep. Luckily payments covered are not subject to interest charges.

The party, returning to Larcos with their rust monster captive, immediately set out to deal with the threat of the intelligent weapons. Larcos too wanted no delay and so led the way to the weapons. The party decided to keep the Cogaloxin out of the fight, as they feared the weapons may attempt to destroy the rust monster, which the group needed to defeat the weapons.
It turned out to be a good idea to leave out the rust monster if for no better reason than that the fight was confusing enough as it is. Upon Larcos entering the ‘arena’, the two sides of saliking swords were about to set upon each other. His entrance drew the attention (of course) of some weapons, from both side, who then came at the ex-paladin.
Seeing their ally in combat, the Basic Six followed suite and waded into a strange combat. Knowing the wielders themselves were doubtfully responsible, the party worked hard to keep the damage done to a minimum and beat their enemies senseless rather than to death.
The battle was long and drawn out, but the party relentlessly pounded their foes into submission. It both helped nid didn’t help that the weapons fought each other as well as the group, as they were not so concerned with lethality. Finally having won, the party fed all the weapons, careful not to contact them directly, to the Cogaloxin, who had been waiting patiently in a big cage outside.
Though useful in this circumstance, the Cogaloxin was still a threat to be dealt with. Not simply a wild beast, the Cogaloxin has connections and origins from the lower planes and is inherently evil. So, having used it to fulfill their needs, the party somberly put down the caged rust monster. A sad day for all. Following the battle, the party parted ways from the Holy liberator and readied to continue on their way.

Continuing from the last session: the Basic Six burst into the ‘mud-room’ and defeated the “cultists”. Unfortunately, one of the “cultists” died (the Wizard blames everyone else, and everyone else blames the fireball).

In the end, all the weapons were evil, just not all in the same way. They were all originally members of rival thef guilds who turned themselves into swords, and now they dominate people to continue their feud. The group decided it was their task to eliminate the weapons entirely, all of them, despite their desire to own such powerful magic items. Also they ran into an ex-paladin named Larcos whose quest was that exact thing. Very funny coincidence. He informed them that there was a more sure-fire way to defeat the weapons once and for all. This way was simply to feed them to a rust monster, a local monster named The Cogaloxin.

“But aren’t really powerful magical weapons more resistant to such creatures?” the party wanted to know. But of course, this particular rust monster is fiendish, much larger, more fierce and terrifying, and also able to devour magical weapons with ease. What a relief!

But not quite a relief, as the group needed now to capture the big ass beastie in order to use it effectively against the weapons. So off they went, to a not-so-distant location known locally as The Dungeon of Rust and Fire, where this Cogaloxin was known to reside. There they entered bravely and fought it stupidly, attempting to defeat it by rendering it unconscious. This is of course very difficult against a powerful, advanced magical beastie. The Cleric then attempted to lure it to the cadre using an old Iron Cobra’s corpse he had lying about in his knapsack.

Using his new Boots of the Gambol, the Cleric was able to keep his distance while luring the monstrous Rust Monster into the big cage they had brought with them. Once it was caged up they headed back to Riverton and the Ex-paladin Larcos.

The party made it safely to Taunton, where the party did Taunton stuff (Nuati mostly shopped — typical elf). Just as they were leaving, Nuati suddenly declared he was remaining in Taunton to buy more valuable merchandise. He’ll catch up later.

During the travel sans Nuati the Basic Five ran afoul of a Tendriculous and defeated it. They then continued in relative safety to Riverton. There the group stumbled upon a duel, or the ends of one at least. Afterwards they interrogated a beggar, learning of a sword down a well, which they retrieved, learned it could speak and then learned it was part of some sort of weapon war, where intelligent weapons fight other intelligent weapons.

The sword, named Saberhawk, informed them of goings-on at the local bath house, and so the group travel there. Once there the Basic Six (-1) discovered the ‘mud-room’, where other weapons were trying to kill a weapon allied with Saberhawk. All in all it was very confusing.

Percy Keep

Marquis Percy sold out the Basic Six to the third Hag.

The dinner commenced innocently enough. Although Percy seemed especially inquisitive regarding Gorin’s beliefs, the Dwarven Cleric was rather succinct in his descriptions and quickly drew his questioning to a close. This raised his suspicions slightly, as nobody ever really takes note of the Cleric, especially over his brother (“the Loud One”).

The dinner continued, with sumptuous delights served. However, when the Baron’s assistant of some kind came and whispered in his ear, he sent out two of his only retainers from the room, leaving him mostly alone with the Six. This immediately raised the Wizard’s metagamey hackles, and he jumped up, banged his fists on the table and generally made a scene, demanding what was going on, claiming somebody was in disguise, possibly another Rakshasa. Percy assured the group that nothing was amiss, though he did need to depart for a moment (leaving the Six alone in the room).

The Wizard then, having decided the Six had been set up, threatened the Baron should he leave the room. At this point, the jig being up in somebody’s mind, somebody transformed into somebody’s true form, (not a Rakshasa, but still) which was the third and final Hag of the coven the Basic Six had broken, and capturing and then destroying their Hag’s Eye. The doors opened and a few mercenaries descended upon the group to boot.

The battle was swift and harsh, the Wizard blasting away with fireballs, while the paladins laid about with their swords and Nuati shot some bad guys too. Though the Basic Six took some blows and several members got to be up close and uncomfortably personal with the Hag, they soon turned the tide of battle, ending with their ultimate victory. After defeating the big bad guy, most of the mercenaries surrendered, and one of them being a female Halfling, the Rogue of course wants to “hire” her. Nuati temporarily hired the female human, then later made secret arrangements for her to await further employment in Rick’s Hold.

They found the treacherous Baron Percy in a room nearby, who seemed relatively uninterested in the groups’ survival. When threatened and questioned, the Baron responded it was simple business, and he then paid the group double what he was paid to betray them originally. Despite this, the Wizard and Rogue were very upset at the betrayal and took it personally. This led them on a short stealing spree through the Baron’s mansion. They took a couple thousand in random valuables, however the end of the spree culminated in the Rogue, having been made invisible by the wizard and vice versa, stealing the necklace of the Baron right off his throat. (They took it, believing it to be the amulet keyed to the stone golem guardian guarding the Baron’s greater wealth. It wasn’t . But it was still valuable and can be used as a form of signet for impersonating the Baron, so not bad.)

Afterwards, the group headed to the tavern and rented rooms. The Paladins then rode up to the castle and challenged them to send out their best knights for non-lethal combat. Gil unhorsed his opponent with blunted lances, and Krotchlikmieoff defeated his in man-to-man combat, unarmoured, with a training sword. Afterwards they invited the opposing knights back to the tavern for revelry, gift-giving, and general camaraderie.

Taking the gold (and random stolen goods), the Basic Six then left heading for the next town, hopefully less betrayal-y than the last.

Paperwork

Because sometimes, you just gotta do the paperwork.

The group managed to do a few minor things, preparing for their next adventure. Lady Vandertunt figured out where her brother went, so the party is planning a trip to Treinz to investigate. Along the way they were hoping to buy and sell some trade goods, but that’s turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. Nuati gave it a try, but all he manage to do was buy 20 light warhorses for the keep’s men-at-arms. There was also the talk of firewood, and a lot of goats if they would just wait another week, but they decided to just go to Treinz without trade goods.

In the hopes of finding trade goods along the way, the Thief Rogue Thief Halfling decided to bring one of his ships along for the trip. Luckily the river runs right next to the road. The Dwarfs volunteered some of their Dwarf-at-arms to help guard it. Nuati was hesitant to ask his Elves to go, because…well, they’re a little spastic and highly breakable.

And so the party set out, arriving at Percy Keep by the end of the first day and asking for lodgings there. The adventure will pick up next time, at dinner!

nuttin' happen dunworyabowdit you need a rest guy

Absolutely nothing happened of any consequence that should worry any Dwarves.

Rumblebelly and the Bard managed to make a sort of peace with Argus, leader of the Teamsters Guild. Nuati paid him handsomely for his future services, and gave him a gift of 100 gp from the Rogue. (Argus might have misinterpreted from whom that gift came, however.)

Gil and Krotchlikmeoff had words concerning the future of tuhe keep, its instability regarding “foreign races”, and the preferred future path towards a new age of enlightenment, justice, and goodness by, for, and amongst all.

And some new Elves showed up to live in Nuati’s commune. One’s a Cleric of Corellon Larethian! <glee>

The deterioration of the environment continued unabated….

Oh, and Lady Vandertunt gave the Basic Six their next clue as to the whereabout of her furtive brother. He’s in Treinz! The party gets to go travelling down the long roads that wind towards the capital city, Capital. Nuati is determined to make a mechant caravan of goods to sell at a stopover there.

And also the wild boars had to be killed. They were dying in their cells anyway, and room had to be made for the new members of the menagerie (an evil felldrake and a cantankerous crackerdile), so the best course of action was determined to be the harvesting of their meat while they were still healthy enough to provide sustenance and feasting for many. Huzzah!

Arriving at the taxidermist’s hall, the Rogue and Paladin (Dimitri) shrewdly and valiantly (respectively) elected to stand guard and stay (not necessarily in that order) at the entrance. The Wizard, Cleric, Bard and Gil continued on, descending into the tunnels, probably sewers and not a dungeon at all.

Stumbling into two unsuspecting guards, Gil charged forward and the others followed, but before a fight could really ensue, the Wizard cast a sleep spell and the guards fell snoring immediately. The group tied them up, looted them and handed them up to their comrades, standing guard above.

The four moved forwards, winding through a few more halls and circular chambers, containing ladders and a central trapdoor in the ceiling, which led to what seemed to be deserted abodes on the dockside. Gil decided to take the ladders, handing them off to Nuati to carry. On the third such chamber, rather than carry a third ladder, Nuati simply broke it, creating less valuable but just as heavy firewood.

They fought another group of thieves, who were summarily defeated and surrendered, without the party taking serious harm. They also fought a crocodile. Which translates in actuality to Gil wrestling the Croc, who pinned him beneath the water in an attempt to drown him (impossible due to his Necklace of Adaptation), while the Cleric beat the reptile into unconsciousness and the Wizard and Bard engaged in a staring contest with one another. Once it was subdued, they passed it up to their comrades, to be added to the menagerie, no doubt much to Irwin’s delight. ‘Cause it’s a Salty.

After breaking into several rooms, rarely on the first try, the group ran into a contingent of three thieves guarding a post overlooking an illusionary wall. One was charmed, the second smoted, and the third gladly surrendered to justice rather than have to engage with a Dwarven Cleric. Our new charmed friend then gave up some information on the area, and then led the party toward their chosen goal, the “Lady of the Lotus”. Eventually the group came to a lavishly decorated room, full of what looked like loot. It was also inhabited by a woman and a small green dragon, very similar to the crested felldrake who resided back at the keep.

A relatively brief dialogue ensued wherein the Bard questioned the woman, Rowan by name. She was a head of the Thieves guild currently operating locally, along with Vanthus. Vanthus was not around. Eventually enraged by the questioning, Rowan called on her drake to attack the group and drank a potion, turning into a gaseous cloud of vapour and retreating through a pipe in the wall.

Worried their quarry would escape, the Cleric cast a dispel magic on her potion’s effects. It succeeded in revoking her gaseous state, much to the horror of most of the group. When her body regain its true corporeal form, it no longer fit in the tiny pipe. She was immediately crushed to death, squirting gooey juices into the Cleric’s face, much to the shock of the party, who stood aghast. Aghast, I say!

The drake fought on regardless, but standing alone it was no match for the four adventurers. Taking it prisoner, they looted the room and nearby areas as well, discovering chests, trapped of course, containing the stolen Vandertunt gold.

Upon departing, they rushed back to the keep to distribute the wealth. Most of which what’s either returned to its rightful owners, donated to good causes or brought back to Lady Vandertunt. Gil had to cover an extra 1200 gold, as the wizard didn’t want to give up his purloined gold and had taken several statues and valuables as his share, which were probably stolen property in the first place but no Dwarf bothered to seek out their rightful owners. The Wizard also decided to attempt to ‘befriend’ the new felldrake, though he is clearly of an evil bent and unlikely to ever change. Doubtful anything good will come of that. But he hates Elves and so does the Wizard, though the Dwarf has yet to knowingly try, and has no desire, to eat them, unlike his scaly acquaintance.

The group, already in the dungeon, continued on their path of destruction. They waded through a room of Ghasts, led by a Huecuva Cleric, without any hesitation. Paladins leading the charge, the party swarmed into the room, fireballs were thrown, and in short order the undead monsters were formally destroyed.

Following the fight, the party took stock of their situation and realised to their amazement that not one of them had taken any wounds in the combat. What a shock! (Guess there’s a first time for everything, even for Gil.)

They continued through the dungeon, finding several empty rooms and a couple of rotting corpses. The bodies all had tattoos of a dragon and a lotus flower. Nuati recollected this symbol being the emblem of the newly formed “Lotus Dragons” thieves guild.

Before leaving the dungeon, the group ran afoul of an Earth Elemental, which they crumbled into earth. Taking whatever redeemable loot they could grab, the group fled the subterranean gallery, briefly stopping at their keep.

On one of the corpses, the group had discovered a note, laying out the location of the miserable rotten scoundrel, Vanthus Vandertunt. He seems to be hiding out in a complex beneath the taxidermist’s hall in Rick’s Hold.

And so, the party proceeded to the taxidermarium, where they intimidated the shopkeep into revealing the whereabouts of a certain “Lady of the Lotus” with whom the group has now resolved to speak.

These bones were once Penkus, so if you be reading this, I be dead. Laid low by the sick put on me by that foul dead thing! Yet even as my flesh wrecks know ’twas not the dead what brought my doom, but one until recently I called friend!

Vanthus Vanderboren Vandertunt! Your name fills me with bile! Spineless, treacherous cur! You left us here to die, you left ME here to die after all what I done to get you into the Lotus! You’re designs on the Lady of the Lotus be clear now and with myself out of the way you doubtless move even now into power, slithering amid my vacancy like a hermit crab in a shell, or a cadaver worm to still warm flesh. CURSEUPONYOU!

To the one who reads this, if you have any honour or vengeance in your soul, know that Vanthus must die. He dwells in the lap of the Lotus, below the Taxidermist’s Hall. Seek him there, but before he dies he must know it was Penkus that undid him and guides your killing blow!

And, if by some cruel twist of fate it be Vanthus that be reading this; know with certainty I wait for you in Hell, where I intend to rival the pit itself in your torment!

Vaulty McVaultface

The party accompanied the Vandertunt woman to her family’s vault, helped her open it, smacked around an iron cobra, solved a riddle, and discovered her loot for her. Unfortunately, it turned out her own brother had already been into the vault with his own, secret, signet ring, but for some reason he hadn’t taken everything.

After being paid for their help, the party tried to find her nasty brother, Vanthros. After searching for information, Nuati was approached by a member of Vanthros’ “smuggling band” to lead them into a trap. Naturally, everyone went straight for it and got themselves attacked by ghasts while Vanthros and Smackabilly tried to seal them below ground in a haunted dungeon. The Wizard dimension doored himself out, but before he could annihilate Vanthros, the miscreant teleported away with his magic item, Deus ex machina.

Smugglers and such

The party was hired by some Vandertunt woman to rescue her boat from her own crew. The bad bad men were using it for the purposes of smuggling exotic animals into Rick’s Hold. Most of the party boarded the vessel, defeated the smuggler, took the ship, and claimed the exotic animals for their prize. The Dwarf wizard took two parrots for himself, and the rest of the animals were sold to the exotic beast collector for 800 gp.

Gil couldn’t climb the rope to get aboard the ship until after the fighting was over. Gil is bad at climbing.

Amongst the loot was the Vandertunt woman’s family’s signet ring, which she needed to open the family vault and look for treasure.

Letter from the Lady Vanderboren

Greetings, and I trust this missive find you in good health,

My name is Lady Lavinia Vanderboren and I humbly request your attendance at dinner at my estate on Festival Street tomorrow evening. I think that I can present you with an opportunity uniquely suited to your skills. Please inform the carrier of this letter of your response to this invitation and I hope to be speaking to you soon.

The party readied for their upcoming assault upon the Aboleth and co. However, Nuati went over the number of monsters in the basement awaiting them — 26 Skum, a Chuul, and an Aboleth would have been overwhelming if they had converged upon the party all at once — and decided perhaps they could use a bit more help. So they packed up and returned to their keep for the night and got who else but Gigglecloud? (They also picked up Elatoris.). The group re-readied for the battle, preparing spells and rethinking their plan of attack. They had Thomas assist them in getting downstairs. If they could manage to split the monsters into three separate groups, the party could split into two groups and take them on more easily.

Thomas dimesion doored himself, the Wizard, Dimitri and the Cleric (“party group one”) directly into the Aboleth’s chamber following an extensive few minutes of preparations and protective and assistive spells being cast upon all sorts of members of the party.

The Cleric, invisible at this point, moved immediately to the water’s edge and cast his most powerful spell prepared that day and magically removed all the water from the room, leaving a tossing Aboleth surprised and angry in the middle of the now-empty room. Well, empty except for the Aboleth, its Chuul companion, and several Skum (“monster group one”).

The Skum were sitting peacefully, unexpecting of both the sudden entrance of the small party and the even more unexpected sudden drainage of their current abode, when the Wizard flew up (he had cast fly on himself in preparation) above the small horde and threw a fireball directly into their midst, frying all the Skum and singeing both the other beasties in the room.

Not to be outdone, the Paladin then stomped up to the Aboleth, drew back his sword and slew the Aboleth in one slash. Even he was surprised. (He was magically strengthened and his blade magically sharpened by his allies and the Wizard’s fireball had injured it first, but still!)

While that was all happening the rest of the party (“party group two”) was not idle, they instead having dropped down the chute in the centre of the guild to the basement while holding a magically silenced stone, to prevent a group of Skum (“monster group two”) from noticing their arrival. The silence worked like a charm as the Rogue slipped into the hall, stepped behind a monster and slew him in a most sneaky fashion. (The rogue did try to cast a fireball before entering the hallway, forgetting that the effects of silence worked on him too). Following the Rogue’s example, the remaining members of the party piled into the hall and began slaughtering the unsuspecting Skum. Only Elatoris was injured in the battle, but his spell of false life saved him from taking more than a mighty one point of damage!

While their friends prevented aid from coming, the Wizard and Paladin continued to kill the chamber’s remaining occupants, while the Cleric swooped down to claim an Aboleth egg. Seeing him grab them so quickly, Thomas decided to take the other two eggs before escaping via another dimension door.

Having cleared the room, the Wizard flew over and past all his allies, seeking a room with another dozen unsuspecting Skum (“monster group three”). Upon finding it, he cast another fireball, immolating the entire band. The party then looted what they could and returned to Thomas and Moira upstairs.

They sold their single Aboleth egg to Thomas, along with the other loot the Dwarves had taken from the guild earlier, in a small (very small) effort to regain a bit of Thomas’ trust after reading his mind. The party returned to the marquis to inform him that the task was complete. He wouldn’t see them, sending instead an underling who paid them for their efforts. Then everybody went home for ice cream.